Posted on 01/19/2006 11:28:01 AM PST by blam
Source: University of Chicago Press Journals
Date: 2006-01-19
New Study Reveals Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans
The disappearance of Neanderthals is frequently attributed to competition from modern humans, whose greater intelligence has been widely supposed to make them more efficient as hunters. However, a new study forthcoming in the February issue of Current Anthropology argues that the hunting practices of Neanderthals and early modern humans were largely indistinguishable, a conclusion leading to a different explanation, also based on archaeological data, to explain the disappearance of the Neanderthals.
This study has important implications for debates surrounding behavioral evolution and the practices that eventually allowed modern humans like ourselves to displace other closely-related species.
"Each population was equally and independently capable of acquiring and exploiting critical information pertaining to animal availability and behavior," write the anthropologists, from the University of Connecticut, University of Haifa, Hebrew University, and Harvard University.
The researchers use new archaeological data from a Middle- and Upper-Paleolithic rock shelter in the Georgian Republic dated to 60,000?20,000 years ago to contest some prior models of the perceived behavioral and cognitive differences between Neanderthals and modern humans.
Instead, the researchers suggest that developments in the social realm of modern human life, allowing routine use of distant resources and more extensive division of labor, may be better indicators of why Neanderthals disappeared than hunting practices.
"The establishment of larger social networks allowed the replacement of Neanderthals in the Caucasus," write the authors. "Our study also indicates that this process of replacement by modern humans spread beyond the traditional biogeographical barrier [of] Neanderthal mobility represented by the Caucasus Mountains."
Well, this is number 2 answer that the commercial is geico. Must be true. I honestly can not remember, Now I'm ROFLOL!
Won't Geico be upset that I can't remember the comapny because of the commercial? LOL?!
How is something like that authenticated anyway? I've always wanted to buy some coins from Jesus' time but was afraid they were just fakes.
That commercial cracks me up BIG time!
Hey! mlc9852!
:)
I'm not buying it, but they have a great promo! Thanks for confirmation!
The date will say BC instead of AD on the really old coins.
I further theorize that when he finally noticed the neighborhood was getting crowded with all the wrong types, Neanderthal invented Flying Saucers and left. Still checks back in now and again, of course. ;^)
Hey. Isn't this fun? LOL
And what would your advice be for the ones that say "Made in China"?
But their table manners were left wanting. So they fell by the wayside. Actually they probably fell by the wayside because another tribe of humans tired of their animalistic and barbaric antics. Kind of the same reason people originally marched out of Africa 200 million years ago or whatever the timeline is. Tired of the neighborhood.
I've always wondered about that. If I were to test populations to see if there were any Neandertal genes, I would test in the areas where Neandertals have been found. Narrow that down to areas where whole populations have been fighting and killing each other since before recorded history (the Balkans come to mind).
Then find an area where each side of the conflict feels that the "people in the next valley are different", and then check both populations to see if the really are different.
I don't understand why they test for Neandertal genes in areas where nobody has ever even found one. Doesn't make sense to me.
They should just stick with the gecko.
wonder if anyone has ever considered that it may have been disease that wiped out neanderthals?
Yeah, I buy that premise, too. The two lines simply interbred.
yawn. eventually even sientists will figure out that man has not fundamentally changed through the ages. christians and jews have known this for millenia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.